On a recent Saturday afternoon, longtime supporters and leaders of the Close the Workhouse campaign gathered in O’Fallon Park to celebrate the end of an era.

For those who invested years of effort and energy to defund and demolish the Workhouse, this was an opportunity to celebrate a clear win: There was a jail at 7600 Hall St. that caused tremendous suffering for thousands of people over decades, and now it is a pile of rubble.

Just blocks from the place where we marked that seemingly impossible victory, residents of North St. Louis are living a hellish nightmare. At this point, we can recite the facts from memory: Thousands of homes damaged or destroyed, dozens killed or injured, neighborhoods awash with debris and unlivable structures. This has been a true description every day since

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